I went to the Carnegie Museums today. I knew that the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art were near each other but it turns out they share the same buildings and the two collections are somewhat jumbled together. It would be difficult to see one without seeing at least some of the other.

They're both fairly large museums so I knew I'd have to hurry to see them both in one day. I started off in the natural history section. They have a very good mineral and gem collection that has recently been re-done. There's a geology display with information about plate tectonics and how rocks are formed. Their animal displays are broken up into sections for North America, Africa and the Polar Reqions. These displays consist of dioramas that look a little dated. They also have a few other small animal displays scattered around including birds, bird eggs and insects. They have dinosaur and ice age fossil displays as well as the PaleoLab where you can watch paleontologists work. They also have Egyptian and Native American displays included in the natural history museum.

Five of the galleries in the art museum were closed for re-installation. I probably wouldn't have made it through the entire museum befoe closing if all the galleries had been open. They've recently reorganized their Impressionist collection and it's now shown under the title Impressionism in a New Light: From Monet to Stieglitz. Not having seen it before, I can't say I noticed anything new. They have quite a number of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces by all of the big names: Cassatt, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Seurat are all represented. In addition they have some photography included with the show, including works by Stieglitz as indicated bu the title.

Hand Made: Contemporary Craft in Ceramic, Glass, and Wood features studio craft pieces from the last 70 years. They had a few furniture pieces that I liked but I was disappointed they didn't have any works by Wendell Castle.

They had an exhibit called Past Meets Present: Decorative Arts and Design at Carnegie Museum of Art. It featured decorative art from the 18th century to the present. Part of this was a large chair display that I found interesting.

They have a large gallery of plaster casts of famous sculptures and buildings. It's interesting to see some of the pieces even if they are casts.